. Insect transformations . is egg she places another, all whichadhere firmly together by means of their glue, andform a triangular figure thus % *, wliich is the stern * Goldsmith, Animated Nature, vi, 337.+ Bingley, Animal Biography, iii, 439, 74 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. of the raft. She proceeds in the same manner to addegg after egg in a vertical (not a horizontal) position,carefully regulating the shape by her crossed legs;and as her rati increases in magnitude, she pushes thewhole gradually to a greater distance, and when shehas about half-finished she uncrosses her legs andplaces
. Insect transformations . is egg she places another, all whichadhere firmly together by means of their glue, andform a triangular figure thus % *, wliich is the stern * Goldsmith, Animated Nature, vi, 337.+ Bingley, Animal Biography, iii, 439, 74 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. of the raft. She proceeds in the same manner to addegg after egg in a vertical (not a horizontal) position,carefully regulating the shape by her crossed legs;and as her rati increases in magnitude, she pushes thewhole gradually to a greater distance, and when shehas about half-finished she uncrosses her legs andplaces them parallel, the angle being no longer neces-sary for shaping the boat. Each raft consists offrom two hundred and fifty to three hundred andfifty eggs, which, when all laid, float on the watersecure from sinking, and are finally abandoned bythe mother. They are hatched in a few days, thegrubs issuing from the lower end; but the boat, nowcomposed of the empty shells, continues to float till itis destroyed by the weather.*. Gnats forming their egg boats, n, represents tlie commencementOf the boat of eggs ; 6, the boat ubout Iwo-thiids completed ; c,the perfect boat reutiiig ou the surface of the water. Kirby justly describes this little vessel as resemblinga London wherry, being sharp and higher, as sailorssay, fore and aft, convex below and concave above,and always floating on its keel. The most violentagitation of the water, he adds, cannot sink it, andwhat is more extraordinary, and a property still a de-sideratum in our life-boats, though hollow, it never be- ♦ Reaumur, ]\lem. RAFT OF EGGS OP THE GNAT. 73 comes filled with water, even though exposed. Toput this to the test, I placed half a dozen of theseboats upon the surface of a tumbler half-full of water:I then poured upon them a stream of that elementfrom the mouth of a quart bottle held a foot abovethem. Yet after this treatment, which was so roughas actually to project one out of the glass, I foundthem floating as b
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